Sunday, September 09, 2007

Rash promises

The old story about Alexander the Great, regretting that he had only one world to conquer is, apparently, not the right version. A contemporary of his by name Anaximenes of Lampsacus, had postulated that there were worlds other than earth, and he was the one who put the conceited Alexander in his place and deflated his ego by telling him that he had merely conquered one of the worlds. Big deal.

I wish someone had told Dravid and his team, and also the euphoric fans that, in winning the ODI at the Oval, they had not conquered the world, but had merely won one of the matches.

And, I should learn not to get carried away. When we needed 50 runs off 40 balls, I told my wife that if the young Uthappa took us to victory, I would eat as many uthappams as the number of runs he scored. He ended up scoring 47 runs. And sure enough, when we went to Woodlands this weekend, wife called my bluff and insisted that I should honour my word and eat the 47 uthappams. I managed to extricate myself from the tight spot, but swore that I will not make rash promises in the heat of the moment.

Reminded me of this scene in the Laurel and Hardy classic “Way out west” where Laurel would make a statement that ‘if they didn’t get the deed, he would eat his hat’. That evening, Hardy would remind him of what he had said and insist that he should eat his hat. Laurel takes a reluctant first bite, a second, a third; then adds some salt and pepper and continues….

3 comments:

To quote from 'Yes Minister', which suits this situation bang-on:"An aggressive question (in this case, a statement) is like fast bowling. Unless it is deadly accurate, one can use its pace against itself."